Stray cat on rooftop in Santorini

I thought it was a lost cat on a white dune at the sunset time, and was wondering what kind of beach or desert it was. Tech info by the photographer shows that is is a very carefully calculated image (all of the color, composition and light) that turned out to be really successful. Congrats on the job well done.

I have just spent all day on two tasks: on the net arranging accommodation on Santorini for a holiday in May, and trying to coax my (now) stray cat back home with fresh fish fillets (he left because of the dogs). So this pic has a resonance for me personally.

 

Simple composition, good suspicious look on the cat. Beautiful colors (although they might have been better without the filtering) and a slightly dizzy feeling of spaciousness. I'll give him a pat for you when I get there.

 

I also liked your shot of the Harbour Bridge. The fence-post set it off well. It's a very hard thing to capture without cliche. Your pic was different somehow. Very appealing.

Max 800 has punchy colors and Santorini is naturally beautiful so IMO the color grad is overkill. The effect is interesting nonetheless. I would not have known what I was looking at without the explanation but I can't decide if that really matters. Telling us the lens is crappy is a cop out. Let the image stand on it's own, rather than play on peoples perceptions of equipment.

"Telling us the lens is crappy is a cop out."

 

I disagree with Keith about this. Too often photo.netters talk as if we all have - or ought to have - the finest available pro-quality optics. Chris is just reminding us here that that's not always a realistic expectation.

 

I think the other commentators are correct about the filter, though.

 

Mark

 

Great Shot. I thought it was the salt flats, but that doesn't matter. Good composition, nice, soft color, agreed re the filter. The Penney's lens might have actually made it better. Who's to say?

I thought this was a photo of a cat in the hallway of some home that has Chinese paintings on the wall.

 

But, I really like it-- it's really good. The filter may be a bit much-- but only a bit. I tend to dislike filter effects-- heartily. I feel here, though, it adds a gravity which keeps us focused-- the eye doesn't wander out into the sky.

I originally thought this was the salt flats until I read that it was on a roof top. I stared at the picture for about 3 minutes completely unable to find where the roof and the background met. Then suddently the edge of the roof jumped out at me as if I was staring at one of those pixlelated 3D image tricks. Once my mind recognized the edge of the roof the whole perspective of the picture changed right before my eyes.

 

I'm amazed that my eye didn't catch the roof line afer staring at it for so long. Now that I see it, the contrast between the roof and the background is strikingly different, not to mention that there is a pronounced line between the two which my mind completely ignored.

 

It reminds me how human beings perceptions of the same object or circumstances can be so drastically different sometimes.

I really like the color seperation, the roof being a nice solid color, and then the two colors of the sky seperated by that cloud... very attractive

Once again a good image made with weak hardware has proved that it's not the camera, but the eye behind it that makes photographs. I laughed out loud when I first saw this; it was a combination of seeing that cat staring at us with suspicion, and the interplay between the roof and sky. I like it. I feel jealous, though, because in my corner of the planet, Oklahoma, USA, all the roofs are slanted shingles, and you can't get on them.

Beautiful, I love the whole picture and the feeling it evokes. I am not a professional, but I do have an eye for art. T. McGee

I dont really understand this site, i know that amuter photographers out rank the pros and the kind of image education varies and people wan to see difernt things. For some a pet cat is cute and that will make a good image for others a good tonal range some will find falt with anything and others say its good or its not and its nothing but snobbery to ignore any of these veiw points but im confused i consider this a fantastic shots yet it rated 6/10 yet ive got crap up wich people have given far more. It makes you really wonder what a good image is. is it what you think or is it what everyone thinks it is. If id have found this image say in a gallery id put it up next to the best. but because its on some prodominatly amuatur web site it gets less than it perhaps deserves, id be intersted to see, what the reaction would be to this picture if it were found somwhere were somone had already said it was excellent and what the people who rated it down would have made of then.

 

ps i know i cant spell

Hi Oliver,

I agree with you - the ratings on this site is kind of useless in many ways. I wish they had a case where you could choose not to be rated.

I agree. For whatever reason, where the rooftop ends and the sky begins didn't jump out at me. It looked like it went from foreground to background seamlessly.

 

Then, look a little more, and you see it. Somehow the angle between the horizontal roof and the vertical 'wall' is seamless enough to convince me it's way off in the background, and then the top of the 'wall' looks like a horizon point.

 

Just wierd, wierd, wierd. I kinda liked it better when I couldn't tell where the roof ended, but it's pretty good no matter what.

 

...but I'll admit that at first site I thought this image was a photomontage. Looking at the medium sized image I thought the cat had been placed on water. Then, after reading a few comments, I clicked on "large" and got closer to my monitor. Well done, it's a fantastic image.

No point in rating.

Hello Chris, I just had to comment on this particular photo. I have viewed your folder several times and enjoy the floral photos must say your bridge is your Gem. It seems the overall opinion for this photo is the edge of roof presents an optical illusion. There is a similarity as in concept your stray cat and in my folder My Images (Facing A Cathedral Catus) its a reality the contrasting colors cause this type of optical illusion. I do think though if you where closer to the cat it certainly would have changed the depth of field and a completly different photo thus created. Oh, by the way i did rescan the photo My Images (Facing a Cathedral Catus) it certainly looks alot better now. Excellent!!!!-Michael Joseph Hoard

This is the first cat picture I really liked!

I love it. It is almost abstract. And the fact that it was taken with something besides a Hasselblad is great! It shows how composition REALLY can make the difference.

 

About the only change I would have done was maybe a little fill flash. But I'm not sure that would help or ruin it. In fact it's almost a speculation really. What if there was some fill flash...

Fabulous though!

Chris,

Nice Job. It was a wonderful composition that tricked eyes untrained to Santorini landscapes :-)

Hello Kitty